The Ryan White CARE Act, also known as the AIDS Prevention Act of 1990, turned 25 years old this month. In the thirty or so years since the start of the HIV Epidemic, few programs have had the impact of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and the young man who bravely fought his battle with HIV/AIDS while using his experience to teach others and spread love. Celebrate the anniversary of this incredible program that has helped save thousands of lives by learning about the history of the program and its namesake, Ryan White.

"Opportunistic infection" is a phrase that most people probably aren't familiar with. While all people are vulnerable to infection at various times in their lives, an opportunistic infection is a very specific affliction that affects a very specific population. Context clues suggest a certain meaning- namely, an infection that takes advantage of an opportunity, such as a weakened immune system- but the context clues only scratch the surface of what an opportunistic infection is, who it affects, and why.

The only thing worse than having a sexually transmitted disease is having to talk about having an STD. As popular as internet-speak and acronyms are these days, it's no surprise that there are dozens of nicknames to get around the names of the itchy, drippy, burning afflictions no one wants to talk about, but did you know that many of those STD slang terms have been around as long as the STDs themselves?

In the absence of symptoms, it may be tempting to ignore an STD in the hopes that it will go away on its own, resolving to take care of it if the symptoms get worse. With some STDs, though, there isn’t a progression of symptoms; the disease could go from symptomless to life-threatening with nothing in between.

This Saturday, June 27th, is National HIV Testing Day. The annual event, created to encourage everyone to get tested for HIV, began in 1995 and is organized by the National Association of People with AIDS. Over 1.2 million people over the age of 13 are currently living with an HIV/AIDS infection in U.S. with an additional 50,000 infections being added every year. People between the ages of 13 and 24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections and it is said that 1 in 7 of them don’t even know they’re positive.

HIV has a long history of teetering on the fringes of the legislative process. From the very beginning of the epidemic, states have enacted laws specifically targeting HIV-positive individuals, presumably to penalize people who know their status and knowingly expose others to the virus. At least 33 states in the U.S. have laws on the books that criminalize various behaviors within the HIV-positive population, with 25 of those states criminalizing behaviors that carry a low or minor risk of transmitting the virus. At least 14 states require an HIV-positive person to disclose their status with

Did you know: March 10th is National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD)? To spread awareness of HIV and AIDS, especially pertaining to women and girls, we created an infographic with statistics and facts that relate to both.
Get the facts, get tested!
Check out CDC.gov and/or WomensHealth.gov for more information!

This week in Closer to the Cure: Timothy Ray Brown speaks about HIV and the doctor who cured him, Merck & Co. make HIV drugs more accessible to children in impoverished nations, new drugs found to prevent HIV, new book with AIDS' origin, and more.